Men's Basketball

PIRATE NEWS

Come join the Peninsula College Pirates for our annual spring basketball camp! Friday we will be focusing on the fundamentals, and we will improve our skills through a variety of drills and competitive games. After we work hard and improve on Friday, we will make teams based on skill levels and come back Saturday for our camp tournament! Saturday will consist of live 5-on-5 games that will be both coached and officiated by our college athletes, and they are open to spectators so that everyone can come see you play! So if you want to have fun playing hoops, and improve your skills in the process, then sign up for our spring basketball camp today! Go Pirates!

PORT ANGELES – The Peninsula College women and men traveled different roads this season, but both roads inevitably will lead to Kennewick – the site of the 2015 Northwest Athletic Conference Basketball Championships, coming up March 7-10 at the Toyota Center.

The Pirate women crushed a short-handed Shoreline team 87-20 in front of a packed-house in the Peninsula College gym Saturday to clinch their first North Division championship since 2005, and only the second in PC women’s basketball history. The Pirates (19-5, 13-1) will play the No. 4 seed from the South Division, Portland or Clackamas, at 8 p.m. Saturday in the first round of the 16-team tournament.

The Peninsula men, meanwhile, needed a win over the Dolphins to clinch their spot in the tournament, but they fell 83-69 leaving them at 7-7 in conference play and 14-12 overall and facing a possible tie with Skagit Valley for the fourth berth to the NWAC Tournament. Skagit, however, fell to Edmonds 79-75 Saturday, dropping into a fifth place tie with Shoreline and leaving the Pirates in sole possession of fourth place – and a spot in the tournament. The PC men will play Mt. Hood (9-5, 12-13) in the opening round at 10 a.m. Saturday.

Both the women and men will board the Black Pearl on Thursday en route to the 2015 NWAC Championships. It will be the third straight trip for fifth-year head coach Alison Crumb, who led Peninsula to the tournament in 2005 as a player, and the first trip to the “Show” for second-year head coach Mitch Freeman.

While the playoff picture was the main attraction, it was also Sophomore Night, where fans from all over the West Coast jammed into the Pirate gym to see the final home games for Gabi Fenumiai, Whitney Nemelka, Madison Pilster, Miranda Schmillen and Jonelle Staveland from the women’s team, as well as Jal Deng and Domach Domach from the men’s team.

The Pirate fans also paid respect to Art Ruud, a player from the 1970 men’s championship team, who passed away recently from cancer at the age of 64. A large contingent of his family and friends were on hand to honor the long-time Port Angeles resident who was a big part of Peninsula College basketball history and who’s name is part of that Pirate team that was inducted into the NWAC Hall of Fame and the Peninsula College Hall of Fame.

PORT ANGELES – The number 68 turned out to be magical for the Pirates Wednesday night.

The Pirate women pulled away in the final minutes to beat Skagit Valley 68-58 to set themselves up for a chance to win the North Division championship on Saturday, and two hours later, Ryley Callaghan hit a running three-point bomb at the buzzer to lift the Pirate men to a 68-67 victory over the Cardinals, setting them up for a chance to secure third place and a trip to the playoffs Saturday.

The Pirate women’s victory, combined with a Bellevue loss to Whatcom, puts Peninsula (18-5, 12-1) in a position to win the North title outright in Saturday’s final home game of the regular season against winless Shoreline.

The PC men’s victory leaves the Pirates (7-6, 14-11) in third place. A win in Saturday’s regular season finale against Shoreline (5-8, 10-16) would propel Peninsula to the 2015 NWAC Basketball Championships, set for March 7-10 in Kennewick.

“This is a night Pirate fans are going to be talking about for a while,” Athletic Director Rick Ross said. “Neither game was how we would have scripted it, but we somehow came away with two huge wins against two very talented Skagit Valley teams.”

Saturday night is Sophomore Night for the Pirates, who will say goodbye to five women and three men, all playing their last regular season game in the Pirate gym. A ceremony to honor the eight players will take place prior to the start of the men’s game at approximately 6:45 p.m.